


How to fall in love with your General

by anakinks



Series: How to build a family [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: (Cody wasn't supposed to be at the first Battle of Geonosis but idc), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Battle of Geonosis, Cody and Obi-Wan are nerds, Cody and Obi-Wan friendship, Cody isn't paid enough to deal with this shit, Cody's POV, Developing Relationship, Kenobi has a death wish, M/M, Mpreg, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, and other unspecified battles, discussion of their respective ranks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-12-01 22:38:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20921546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anakinks/pseuds/anakinks
Summary: Cody’s first battle, his first meeting with his Jedi General and life outside Kamino: messy, dangerous and so different from anything he’d ever imagined.Plot/content notes:- while this is set duringHow to build a family, you don’t need to read that to make sense of this, and vice versa. This is just a self-contained meeting-and-falling-in-love story from Cody’s POV.- the mpreg is barely there in this story. It’s relevant to HTBAF plot, but only mentioned at the end here





	How to fall in love with your General

“Hey, look,” Bacara said, nudging Cody, who reluctantly looked up from his datapad. He’d been trying to finish reading it, but the only free time he’d had lately had been during meals. So he scarfed down the food without looking at it and read. It was a novel he’d picked up from Cort Davin, one of the Mandalorian trainers. Cody would happily read anything, and he generally leaned more towards history and other non-fiction that could have potential uses in the real world, but a novel was a rare treat - and he kept getting interrupted.

“What is it, vod?”

“Up there,” the other one said, pointing towards one of the walkways surrounding the mess hall. There were Lama Su and Taun We, which was unremarkable enough, but there was someone with them, probably a human, although the bulky cloak hid the shape of his body.

“He’s new,” Cody said, frowning up at the man and trying to discern anything else about him from his posture and clothes.

“Do you think he’s a new trainer?” Bacara sounded curious.

“I think…” Cody had to stop, because the man turned around and his cloak billowed behind him as he walked, revealing plain clothes resembling those of farmers - but not quite. “He’s a Jedi!” He said, unable to contain his enthusiasm.

Cody had always been curious - he guessed it was a useful trait to have for learning and adapting He’d often wondered about the galaxy outside Tipoca City, anticipating the moment he’d get to see more of it. And if a Jedi was there, it meant that the time might be near. 

He smiled.

* * *

The galaxy outside Tipoca City was damn hot despite the termoregulating blacks, and it was bright and loud in unexpected ways. The metallic clang of marching droids was overwhelming, louder than any training droid had ever been.

Cody had trained his entire life for that moment, he’d been in more simulations than he could count, and still… this was his first battle. This was real and it made all the difference. This was noisy and messy and unpredictable. This was a rescue mission with a too-short debrief and quick orders.

“Protect the Jedi.” And that was all.

Cody had to be ready. For the Jedi and for his brothers. 

He shoved Six behind him, then shot at the advancing droids.

“What are they teaching you in CT training? How to be cannon fodder?” He yelled.

He’d never been one to yell at cadets, back on Kamino. His famed calm had obviously been the first casualty.

Six fell in line neatly behind him, laying down covering fire with Trapper and a few others. Cody gave himself a moment to assess the battlefield, to find the best route and cause the greatest possible damage. It took him a moment to clear his head, but once he did, he could see the plan in front of his eyes like dejarik pieces. He noticed where the droid line was getting thinner and concentrated his fire there. He ordered another platoon to spread out to surround and isolate the scattered droids.

And so the battle went on, as they tried to gather around the Jedi survivors and to cut their losses.

One of said Jedi jumped in front of his men with frankly unnecessary acrobatics, ready to engage one of the super battle droids, but Cody saw another droid aiming at him and shot it down before he could cause any damage. The Jedi cut off the arm of the battledroid in front of him, then bisected it. It fell down with a clang audible even with the din of battle ringing in his ears.

Cody signed to Six and Trapper to advance with him, and they were soon making scraps of the first line of droids. Once they got too close to the Jedi and his men, Cody used the back of his rifle to bash a droid’s head in, then ducked before another one could shoot him, and used the momentum to kick it, toppling two of them with one move. 

Something pulled at his senses and he turned in time to see the Jedi smiling at him - right before his expression morphed into one of worry. Cody barely had the time to register what was happening before an invisible hand was knocking him down, throwing him against a rock or a piece of droid. 

His helmet unlocked and rolled away from him as shrapnel rained down, but he managed to protect his eyes. One of the shards still caught him on the face. No real damage, so he wiped off the blood and stood up again, forcing down the realization that he would have died, had it not been for the Jedi’s reflexes. He would deal with fear after the battle was done, he had no time for it now.

* * *

After Geonosis there had been no real break, but a scramble to fit together Jedi and Clones and plan a cohesive offensive on the Separatists, and Cody wasn’t immediately assigned a General.

He did think about the various Jedi he’d seen in action in the arena. He wondered about where his vode from command training might end up, how it would be to work with natborns. Ponds was the first he heard from.

“I’m joining the 91st Reconnaissance Corps with General Windu.”

“He’s on the Jedi Council, right? That’s a big deal,” Cody said, slapping him on the back, “You’re gonna go far, vod.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” Ponds replied, rolling his eyes, “We’ll all be doing the same things. They give the orders, we shoot down the clankers.”

Cody raised one eyebrow. “Clankers?”

“Yeah. You don’t call them that in the 212th?”

Geonosis was still fresh in Cody’s mind, with all its new sensations. “For the noise they make?”

When Ponds nodded, Cody shrugged. “I haven’t heard it yet, but you know how it is, new slang travels fast.”

* * *

It had been only a few days since he’d left Kamino, but it felt like years. After the shock of battle, Cody had settled back into a rhythm, trying to hold his unit together, arrange replacements for those fallen in the first skirmishes, organise supplies and get the hang of running things without the Kaminoans breathing down his neck. It was exhilarating and extremely taxing. He was more tired than he’d ever been before. 

When he was called to the bridge of the star destroyer, he was planning a surprise inspection to the troopers’ quarters since he had a hunch some people weren’t hiding their contraband well enough. He was under no illusion that everyone would adhere to regulations perfectly all the time, but he was going to do his damn best to make sure his men weren’t sloppy.

He had just started painting his armour to commemorate his first battle and celebrate his own survival and the bright flashes of orange out of the corner of his eye still caught him by surprise sometimes.

There was a Jedi on the bridge, and Cody saluted.

“CC-2224 reporting for duty, sir!”

As the man turned around, two memories jumped out at Cody. This was the Jedi he’d seen on Kamino, and the one he’d fought besides on Geonosis. This was the Jedi who, in the midst of the battle, had smiled at him kicking droids down. 

(Kicking _clankers_ down. Yes, it did sound right.)

It was possible he could grow to like the man.

“At ease, Commander,” the Jedi said, giving him once again that small, bright smile “Is there a name I can call you?”

Quickly, Cody amended his estimate to: extremely likely that he could grow to like the man.

“Cody, sir.”

“I’m General Kenobi. We’ll be working together from now on.”

Cody felt more at ease than he was probably supposed to when meeting his new commanding officer. Maybe it had been the smile, and asking for his name first thing. Maybe it was that they’d already fought together.

They talked for a few more moments, exchanging basic information about the 212th and their next deployment, and when Cody was dismissed from the bridge, he found himself almost unwilling to leave. He wanted to keep talking to the General.

It was only after leaving the bridge that he realized it: there was something very specific he’d reacted to. It was a smell unlike the stale recycled air in the rest of the ship. A distinctly Omega smell. He quickly slammed his helmet on to hide his blush and kept walking at a clipped pace, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the bridge.

They’d had trainers of every designation, and he’d never had such a strong reaction before. He felt ashamed at how quickly and how much that had affected him, but he tried to reason it away. It was bound to happen sooner or later, that he found someone attractive - or just compatible, on a very basic, instinctual way. This didn’t have to mean anything. Besides, he thought he’d managed to be very professional and hadn’t actually acted in any inappropriate way. It was fine, it would go away once he got used to it.

And he did get used to it, at least for a time. He clamped down on his attraction and focused entirely on the war effort. He had clankers to shoot down and brothers to keep alive, and no time for distractions.

That is, unless his general himself became one.

It wasn’t the attraction - he could work through that - but the fondness he had started to develop for his General. That tangle of feelings was much more distracting than Kenobi’s pretty lips or the strong shape of his arms when he stripped down to train. Those feelings took up much more space in Cody’s mind and heart.

Cody had learned to be more patient with Kenobi than he’d been with cadets back home. The man was good at putting up a pretence of dignified wisdom, but he was no less reckless than Skywalker. At least he was willing to listen - and to learn.

At first it had been an uncomfortable situation, having to, almost, train up a superior officer. But Jedi weren’t used to warfare on the scale the clones had been trained for. 

“You bring up a good point, Commander,” Obi-Wan had said the first time Cody had objected to a plan, just a day into his command.

After the briefing, he’d taken him to the side.

“Our skillsets and experiences are very different, Commander, and I think that is a strength. I do look forward to learning more from you. In fact, do you have any recommendations? While I have studied many conflicts, it was always more from a historical point of view, rather than strictly military.”

“Do you… are you asking me for reading material, sir?” Cody asked, something odd shifting in his chest.

The General flashed him a brilliant smile. “I am. Or if you have more suggestions, you know where to find me for a chat.”

_A chat_. He made it sound so casual, almost as if they were civilians with leisure time.

But he had a point, and Cody took his responsibilities very seriously. So they started meeting more and more even outside drills and briefings and other more official situations.

Slowly, Cody started to relax, even talking about things that weren’t strictly business.

“Where did you say this blend of tea was from? It’s very good.”

“Mon Cala. I hear that most humans find it very bitter, but it is one of my favourite blends.”

“Have you ever been to Mon Cala, General? If I may ask.”

The Jedi tilted his head, grey gaze steady on him. “You may always ask.”

So Cody did. His curiosity never seemed to get him into trouble with General Kenobi, who seemed nothing but pleased with Cody’s now endless questions about the worlds he visited or the novels he’d read or the languages he’d studied. The General even fed his curiosity, sometimes literally, prompting him to try new foods whenever they were planetside, or taking the time to point out interesting sights, and finally giving Cody some datapads of his own. Time was always scarce, but having a few lines to read before falling asleep never failed to comfort Cody.

“What did you think of the classic Rodian poetry I gave you last week?” General Kenobi asked during one of their evenings together.

Cody hadn’t liked it, and now he was faced with the difficult choice between a polite lie and - he couldn’t very well tell the truth, it would have been too rude. But he found that he didn’t like the idea of lying to the General.

Something must have shown on his face, because the man in question broke out into laughter. “You hated it, didn’t you? So do I, but I didn’t want to influence your opinion either way. I though maybe it was because I had to memorize big chunks of it as a Padawan and now have a personal dislike of it. But it’s just plain bad, isn’t it? The contemporary stuff is much better, I know a few poets you might enjoy… What’s wrong, Cody?”

He swallowed. “Nothing. Sir.”

“That doesn’t look like nothing.”

Right. _Jedi_. “It’s just. Why did you give me the datapad, if you thought it was bad?”

Kenobi looked confused. “I told you, maybe you were going to enjoy it. Poetry is very personal. Subjective.”

“But if…” Cody fought to put an order to his thoughts, “If it was likely that I would not like it, why did you put me in the position of having to tell you?”

“Why would that- _Oh,_” the General stopped and something like pain flashed behind his eyes. It was gone in a moment, covered by a mask of calm. “I never thought… You never shied away from telling me when I was wrong on matters on strategy before. Why is this different?”

Cody tensed. “I just make suggestions, sir. It’s still up to you to give the orders. This is different. Maybe this was a mistake,” he swallowed, “Fraternisation across ranks.”

The calm mask shattered in an instant and General Kenobi looked like he’d just been slapped. For a moment he looked defeated, like he would just let Cody go. But a moment later he stood up. “No. This was never a mistake. I value your opinions, as a Commander and as a person. I want to talk to you, not…” he carded a hand through his hair, messing them all up, “Take General Skywalker for example. We are close, I practically raised him. Yet we disagree all the time, even fight. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I never expect blind loyalty, a yes-man that agrees even when I’m wrong. Disagreements don’t deny respect.”

“Whatever you say, sir.”

Kenobi snorted. “See? That tone, you sounded exactly like Anakin saying “yes, Master” while he rolls his eyes at me,” his voice went softer and he took a step towards Cody, “I promise you, I never wanted to trick you or make you uncomfortable. But if you do think I have overstepped, we don’t have to keep doing this. You can - I would - I would sign your transfer, if you required one.”

Cody’s soft gasp echoed between them. “No. No, General, I wouldn’t, I never… I wouldn’t leave the 212th.”

_Or you_. 

It went unsaid, but Cody hoped the other could somehow sense it. As much as he had felt blindsided by this matter of etiquette, he appreciated his General’s company, his insights and his smiles. He would never willingly give him up.

The Jedi sat down at the table, but didn’t invite Cody to do the same. Nor did he dismiss him. “I apologise for this. What do you want to do?”

While his expression was impassive and his shoulders ramrod straight, something was off - he smelled distressed. It had taken a moment for Cody’s brain to catch up with that, since his own feelings about the whole conversation had been so muddled. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an unusual scent, but it usually belonged in the battlefield or the medbay, or in the command centre when they were getting bad news. Never in his quarters, in the time that was only theirs.

Slowly, deliberately, Cody stepped around the table and pulled out a chair beside the other man. Not across from him.

“So, tell me about the worse poems you’ve ever read.”

* * *

Years of training, drilled into him since he could remember, made Cody quick to obey orders. But what kept him following those orders wasn’t just that first instinctive reaction: it was the knowledge of what happened when hesitation crept in. Battles were won or lost not just on numbers or equipment, but on steadfastness. Even retreats could be won or lost: a disorderly run killed more than any efficient enemy strategy, while orderly retreat made sure an army would still be there to fight another day. And it all rested on the soldiers ability to follow orders.

And yet, despite knowing this - there were orders Cody was finding harder and harder to obey. It was troubling in more ways than one.

It was the General. Of course, it was. He had fought alongside the troops from the first day, never leading from the sidelines if he could help it, jumping (or backflipping) into the fray and cutting down clankers with frankly un-Jedi-like relish. As a soldier, Cody appreciated bravery, admired it. At the beginning he had been proud to have a General that didn’t shy away from danger. 

But this wasn’t just not shying away, Kenobi seemed to be courting death or at the very least injury. How was Cody supposed to keep his Jedi alive, if said Jedi kept getting away from him on the battlefield, always searching for the enemy General? Or getting into increasingly risky missions with his former Padawan and other Jedi. 

“Fall back!” General Kenobi ordered, even as he himself was trying to hold the line on his own.

Cody signed for his man to do as ordered, but stepped into the hail of blaster fire from an enemy heavy gun right beside Kenobi.

“I could swear,” the man grunted, parrying shots at dizzying speed, “I just said to fall back.”

“The men did,” Cody replied, unrepentant in a way his past self would have been horrified at, and threw a grenade at the Sep heavy gun.

It was too far to reach without a launcher, but, without even having to verbally coordinate, Kenobi gave the explosive a gentle push with the Force, sending it exactly where it was meant to go. Before the explosion reached them, Cody grabbed his General by the shoulder and dragged him down, finding cover.

“I had things perfectly under control,” Kenobi felt the need to point out. 

Since he had his bucket on, Cody allowed himself to roll his eyes at that ridiculous man. Under control, sure.

* * *

As time passed, Cody kept an eye out on the troops, and he wasn’t the only one having such visceral reactions to their General being in danger. Stronger than to any other Omega in a similar situation. He’d talked, discreetly, with Ponds. General Windu pulled many of the same stunts Kenobi did, and Ponds seemed - well, not relaxed about it, but he was coping alright. There had been no discipline issues in the 91st.

Not that they were quite there in 212th yet, but reactions around Kenobi seemed heightened and a hairbreadth away from exploding.

Cody was heading a small contingent meeting an enemy General, an organic who had very little desire do die and was willing to negotiate. 

Kenobi had immediately taken the chance to win with words rather than blasters, and so they had met.

As the enemy General leered at theirs, Cody heard Wooley growling. Luckily, their buckets muffled sounds well enough.

“Cut it,” he snapped over the private internal comm.

He knew General Kenobi went for flirtatious to distract and deceive enemies, and they could not object if they took the bait.

Cody himself could almost laugh at them. He could see the difference between Kenobi working an enemy or potential ally and Kenobi being just… naturally charming. The unguarded way he sometimes laughed, or how he could get really engrossed in a topic, rattling out details and gesticulating as he spoke - so far from the measured quiet he exuded in public. The sly humor, but also the low moods and the well-hidden ruthless streak, they were all things other sentients didn’t get to see.

_Most _other sentients. Duchess Satine Kryze had known his General much longer than Cody had even been alive. She had seen him young and untested, and they had spent a whole year together. She was nothing but proper and polite, but there was a proprietary air to her when she talked to Kenobi that Cody really didn’t like.

No, it was no matter what he liked. She was not a threat, and the rest was none of his business. The General’s personal life and his past were well outside the bounds of what Cody should worry about.

He could - he _would_ be professional and keep his simmering dislike under a lid. 

(Jealousy. As much as he didn’t want to call it that, it was jealousy.)

Despite the fact that his General - _the_ General had put himself in danger _again_ to protect her, and he couldn’t, couldn’t… couldn’t let him get hurt, couldn’t…

And then he realized. He realized what it was that overrode common sense and deeply embedded training. What was that kept him on edge even when he shouldn’t have been. Why he wasn’t reacting so strongly to General Skywalker throwing himself at clankers, not even the creepy spider-shaped ones. Sure, he wasn’t 212th, but they had fought together often enough. Cody knew that, given the chance, he’d want to protect Skywalker. But not in a way that overpowered all his higher brain functions.

(His feelings for the General were partially to blame, true, but he could have kept a lid on them, had circumstances been different.)

He realised what was the underlying _thing_ in the Jedi’s scent, like a sweet aftertaste. Kenobi was pregnant. 

For obvious reasons, Cody hadn’t been around pregnant Omegas before. He knew the theory (which sounded messy and uncomfortable and made cloning look like such a reasonable option), but, as he had learned on his very first battle, theory and practice were as different as an Ewok from a Wookiee.

At first he thought he must have been wrong. He _had _to be wrong, it didn’t make sense, General Kenobi couldn’t be… 

He really wanted to ask Stitches, but he didn’t want to run the risk of his question making its way back to the General, so he made do with some study on his own, and some more quiet observation.

Hormones could stay in circulation for a while - and maybe the General wasn’t pregnant anymore? Or maybe he was just waiting for a replacement and then he’d go back to Coruscant? For some reason, this last thought was less comforting than Cody would have liked. Kenobi would have been safe, but not somewhere he could personally keep an eye on him. But safe nonetheless. A replacement had to be forthcoming, Cody told himself battle after battle. But there was no rumour of anyone else taking over the 212th, nor of General Kenobi taking any leave.

What there was, was Kenobi still acting like he had a death wish and the smell kept being _there_, even more noticeable now that Cody knew what to look for. Wild risk-taking on its own would have worried Cody. But knowing that the Omega was expecting? That made it torture. He wasn’t supposed to interfere in something clearly that private, but it was so hard to just stand by and watch. He was made to protect the Jedi. And even deeper down, something no training could override, he felt this need to protect his Omega.

No. Not his. Just… An Omega he cared about.

_That sounds even worse_, he had to admit to himself, _I am so kriffed._


End file.
